An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 33 - Chapter 1: Kings and Queens

"Ahh!"

"Ooff!"

Jet wondered what it said about him that he was almost getting bored of being manhandled by the guards of various nasty regimes across Aincrad – this was the fifth time in about two months now that he had been literally picked up by the guards... though admittedly, this was the first time he'd been literally thrown into a cell.

He'd always assumed that was a bit of a cliché that simply didn't happen in anything other than comedies... apparently, he was wrong.

Still though, how the hell had they found themselves in this situation? He'd taken Koharu out for a date in the picturesque orchards that surrounded the castle as a way of decompressing after a hectic few days, just the pair of them being a couple for once; something that he had to admit, he'd found a lot more difficult now the Concord had grown from the five of them to include Asuna, Kizmel, Mary, Seven, and with the time he spent helping to train up the "new" members of the Frontliners, he hadn't spent all that much time with Koharu... and what little time he did spend with her was either out in the field...

Or in their bedroom.

That wasn't exactly a reason to hurl them in a jail cell though! It wasn't like they'd been caught doing anything outside, they had literally been sitting on a rug, eating sandwiches when a load of armoured guards turned up, picked both of them up and carried them over their shoulders as if they were sacks...

"You okay Ko?"

"I've been better..." She admitted, picking herself from the floor and dusting herself off. "What did we even do to get thrown in here though? I've never known anywhere with laws against picnicking..."

"There's always one joyless hellhole around, I suppose..." He answered, removing the bindings off his wrists, before he looked around the cell they found themselves in.

It really was a joyless hellhole they had found themselves in; even the glimmer of sunlight bathing in through the gaping hole of a window was disrupted by the iron bars on the window, that light feeling like an oppressive reminder of the fact you were supposed to rot in here for as long as your existence continued. The stone walls, no doubt centuries old, were scuffed, cracked and chipped, probably the desperate attempts of past prisoners to escape... or to keep track of how long they had been in here, and even the scurrying of the rats seemed a little more lethargic than usual, as if they were just as depressed as the other inhabitants of the cell...

The young girl sat across from them probably didn't help matters either. The girl looked to be around Rain's age, though he couldn't tell that for certain, as she did look on the younger side with her hair tied in small pigtails on the side of her head, and her eyes were a very pretty shade of blue, though they looked more lifeless in this moment – not that he'd blame her, given their current situation.

"Oh, sorry! Didn't realise we weren't alone in here!"

"It's understandable. This place saps your energy away, after all." She told them, and he found himself wondering what she had done to find herself in Aincrad's equivalent of the Tower of London in the first place. Her clothing looked to be relatively well made, something he would've expected to see on a person in higher society of the time...

Mind you, if they were anything to go, she'd probably crossed a street without using a pedestrian crossing, and they'd chucked her in here for that horrible crime...

"Um, sorry, we didn't get your name? I'm Koharu and this is Jet." Koharu asked, offering the girl a hopeful smile, whilst he just gave her a wave as he scanned the door. Hopefully the wood was that rotten that it wouldn't take much force to break through, he'd thought, but no such luck. The wood was still very solid...